Life in a Northern Town

Destination: Fort McMurray

by Patrycja Romanowska

A few years ago, while driving to Fort McMurray to begin a job at the local newspaper, I played a game with a friend along for the ride. Since the oncoming traffic mainly comprised large pickup trucks, we would guess what oilsands company the driver worked for based on the vehicle’s look. To us, a white Dodge suggested Suncor, a dark Chevy, Syncrude, an Avalanche, Albian Sands. When we saw a beat-up Honda Civic sputter past, my friend joked: “There’s the journalist you’re replacing.”

This little game was based on fear. If the thought of trying to afford life in Fort McMurray was scary, the stereotype-driven fear of being engulfed by trucks and roughnecks was downright terrifying. Put in your time, was my mantra – it’s probably only going to be a year or two.

As with most fears, mine, while somewhat rooted in reality, did not materialize as imagined. Yes, Fort McMurray was horribly expensive. My one-bedroom apartment cost four times what a similar one had back in Edmonton. However, my wage was considerably higher and my position far superior to anything my colleagues were attaining in the city. Between tax exemptions and living allowances, a reasonable standard of living was possible.

But, yes, there were a lot of trucks. In fact, the whole city seemed to have been built without considering less rugged passenger vehicles. Days after arriving, I lost my muffler while driving out of the newspaper’s parking lot onto the street. While the high concrete step separating one from the other was no obstacle for a truck, for a 1997 Hyundai it was a different story. Luckily, most of the drivers of those trucks were mechanically inclined guys and, eventually, one stopped to help.

The trucks and the guys I expected. But as it turned out, when you look past the boom-town stereotypes, deserved or not, you see a vibrant little community of people trying to live their lives as fully as anyone else. To help them, Keyano Theatre features a full lineup of everything from musicals based on Dr. Seuss books to a staging of Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest. Then there’s the theatre’s host, Keyano College, offering the town and the surrounding municipalities of the Wood Buffalo region opportunities to broaden horizons. On top of that, festivals include Interplay, a summer weekend devoted to the visual and performing arts, and a Canada Day celebration complete with street parties and ethnic food booths. The Westwood Family YMCA provides family fitness, classes and recreation activities, and community clubs cater to interests ranging from quilting to social dancing to jogging.

In fact, my favourite Fort McMurray activities occurred while participating in an outdoor sports club. Training for a local triathlon was pure pleasure. Long bike rides took us along the treed highway north to Syncrude and morning runs, through thick forest. Swims in nearby Gregoire Lake were refreshing.

But what really surprised me was what goes so frequently overlooked by those who’d label Fort McMurray a mere industrial outpost: the beautiful boreal forest and the confluence of the Athabasca and Clearwater rivers, each flanked by jagged banks of northern wilderness. (Oh, and the colours of autumn leaves along the oft-derided Highway 63 from Edmonton are unbeatable.) The best of it, however, was reserved for the evenings. For weeks on end, usually around either equinox, the northern lights would brighten the night sky, and that alone made my stay in this most famous of Canada’s boomtowns worthwhile.

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